I love breaks with my kids. I mean seriously love them! They always go by way too quickly. Our family has a great time no matter what we do. We don't have to do anything big and splashy to enjoy our time together. However, this week turned out to be miserable week. It started out strong and positive. Monday, we basically ran errands and did nothing too important. The kids played, played and played a little more. We went and got smoothies after running around, too.

Tuesday started off good...until the small electrical fire. That kind of put a damper on the day and my productivity. The kids still had a great time together playing and just being with each other, but my mood had definitely changed while trying to get an electrician to come out and soaking wet clothes out of the washing machine. So we did nothing other than wait for the electrician to call back. It was still OK though. Kids still had fun.

Wednesday was nice. I knew it was going to be my low key day because Monster had an allergist appointment. It was a beautiful day so, after the electrician came in the morning, we played outside pretty much right up until the plumber came. Maybe I should back up. Monday night, our upstairs toilet started acting up. We managed to get it working again, but the plumber was in the back of my mind. We needed a new toilet in the basement, so, while calling the electrician, I also called the plumber. The plumber came out Wednesday to give us a new toilet in our basement. Might not be the most exciting thing ever, but it's exciting for us. I spent the majority of my time outside raking snow mold. It was horrible this year. It covered almost all of our back yard. Thursday morning, after the kids got up, the upstairs toilet started acting up again. Figures that the plumber was just out and it was fine. So, another call to the plumber I made. We had plans to go bowling that day and the plumber couldn't make it out until later anyway. We had an awesome time bowling. My kids are great. Honestly. They didn't care if they knocked pins down or not and didn't even look at the scores, they just had a good time getting out there and doing it! After that we went out to lunch and then to karate. That's when the fun started. I had gotten the toilet upstairs to work again, but then, it stopped, again. Out came the plumber, yet again, at 6:00pm. After an hour, found the issue. I'm going to put my plea here. If you come to my house and use the bathroom, please, please, please, do not flush anything other than toilet paper down my toilet. Even if you flush it at your house with no problem, it turns into a problem at my house. The plumbing in our house in horrible, (other than the new stuff our awesome plumber has fixed), so if it can get clogged, it will get clogged. OK? Thanks. By Friday, I was run down and frazzled. It didn't help that it appeared the downstairs toilet was leaking again. It turned out it was not leaking, but that didn't help my stress. All my plans for the week had been shot to hell. My mood sucked. But, I'm a mom and it's not fair to my kids to suffer just because I'm in a bad mood. So, we colored Easter eggs and did some more science experiments. I danced on the toilet (yes, that is correct...stood on top of it while singing Pink songs and danced). We salvaged the day.

Unfortunately, I ended up with a fever Friday night and in bed all of Saturday. So glad we had gotten eggs done on Friday! The kids had an awesome Saturday with Daddy. Easter Sunday started out nicely. I was a bit better. The Easter Bunny had come. Kids had a great time finding eggs and graphing jellybeans (it's a tradition). We had a nice Easter meal with my parents. Then Monster started to not feel well. By the time we got him home, he had a fever of 102 that we had trouble bringing down. He woke up Monday feeling alright, but he stayed home from school to make sure.

So, the week didn't go as planned. I didn't get my things that really did need to get done, done. I'm a week behind on everything. However, everyone in my family is happy and healthy (OK, I'm still not 100%, but close enough). The amazing thing about work is that it will wait. It will still be here later today or tomorrow or next week. Just have to keep reminding myself to do this one day at a time and count my blessings!

The weather here has finally warmed up. It has been above freezing for about a week now. It's amazing what even 34 degrees (F) does for the soul when you've been in the negatives for so long!

First day that was above freezing Sunshine and I decided to do fun nails to hopefully hurry Spring along. I did hers like watermelons and she did mine like Frankenstein.

We also got on a grilling kick since we could go outside and grill without icicles hanging off the grill as we were cooking. I decided to try Greek Grilled Chicken. I was not impressed. You could barely taste the seasoning. In fact, it tasted so plain that Husband and I dipped ours in BBQ sauce. The kids were not fans either. So, another chicken recipe bites the dust.

Also, in the spirit of Spring being right around around the corner, we made Easter treats for our friends. These bunnies are cute and so easy to make! Kinetic sand was probably a little too thick to fit in these, but we made it work!

And we couldn't forget trying to catch those wee Irishmen! We didn't get one this year, but he did spring one of the traps and left glitter all over the house!

We're in for another cold snap, but the thaw has really helped brighten our moods! We have hope that this winter will, in fact, come to an end!

This year, Easter was so close to Sunshine's birthday that I nearly forgot to prepare. With my super advanced planning though, I had found a great pin on making marbleized eggs and had all the ingredients on hand (other than the eggs which I ran to the store on Friday to buy!) The kids were so excited to color eggs. This makes me so happy since this was my favorite thing to do with my grandmother growing up. Fast forward to cooled off eggs. This was supposed to be so easy to do. It required shaving cream and food coloring. No problem. I got it all ready. I rolled the first egg to show the kids what to do. Wow, talk about messy! It took each child to do two for me to realize that this was a complete disaster. First, the kids eggs did not look marbleized at all. They looked blue...and so did the kids. The kids' hands were stained blue. Not just a little, but completely stained, front and back.

I quickly switched gears and pulled out the tried and true Kool Aid. Unfortunately, since I planned on doing the marble eggs, I only had two colors of Kool Aid left over from last year. Neither child wanted anything to do with the Kool Aid eggs after they saw how bright red my hand turned from it. I don't blame them, they were already blue. I felt bad about the kids not getting to really dye eggs like they were looking forward to, so, off to the store I went again to buy yet another dozen eggs. It's a good thing my kids love hard boiled eggs. It's also a good thing that there are directions on the back of the food coloring box for how to dye eggs. That way I didn't have to go out and buy any other supplies! The second dozen eggs went so much more smoothly and the kids had a great time!

Easter morning, the kids were ready to see if the Easter bunny had hidden the eggs we dyed. Sure enough, he did. It was such a beautiful day that the Easter bunny was actually able to hide them outside!

After finding all the eggs and having our traditional Easter French Toast breakfast, we got to enjoy the playground before heading to Nana and Papa's for dinner.

Sunshine couldn't wait to wear her Easter dress!

And then she couldn't wait to change and wear another Easter dress....

I managed to somehow not take a single picture of the kids Easter baskets that they got at Nana and Papa's. Nor did I take any pictures at Nana and Papa's house. Not sure how I managed that one. With that aside, could not have asked for a nicer day!

I have post after post about simplifying life. I'm sure everyone is getting sick and tired of hearing it. I stand by my convictions though. Life isn't about stuff. Somehow, society has forgotten this. Our society has become extremely materialistic. It's all about what you have, no who you are on the inside or the things you do. Our family is not like that. For Easter this year, I was debating whether or not to get the kids Easter baskets from us. My mom gets them their Easter baskets. I would walk through the stores looking at these great ideas of things to put in their baskets, then I stopped and realized, my kids don't need more junk. They don't even care about it. Why start a tradition of getting them stuff on a holiday that is supposed to have deeper meaning? Easter isn't about a bunny. It's about Jesus. Now, my Bible is extremely rusty, but I'm pretty darned sure that when Jesus spoke to Mary after he rose, he didn't say, "Go out and buy as much stuff for people that you can. Load them up on candy. Don't worry about how you live your lives as long as you have a lot of stuff, go on fancy vacations and live in big houses." Isn't materialism a form of gluttony? I'm pretty sure gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. I'm not saying Easter baskets are the devil's work. I'm saying, my kids don't need stuff. The bunny still comes and hides eggs. In fact, the bunny comes and hides eggs with jellybeans in them. That, too, got me thinking. We, as parents, started this. When I was little, I dyed hard boiled eggs with my grandma every year. Every year, the bunny hid those eggs. Those were the eggs I found. I didn't get a basket. I didn't get candy. Amazingly enough, I didn't need those things. I loved Easter because my whole family was together. We all did the egg hunt together. I got one on one time with my grandma when I dyed the eggs. Heck, I don't even EAT eggs! As I was dying eggs with Sunshine and Monster, I realized that if Husband and I (ok, mostly me since he really doesn't care either way) didn't start the whole crap inside plastic egg thing, finding dyed eggs would have been enough for my kids, too. Six years too late realizing this. Now, they expect the Easter bunny to come bringing them eggs filled with junk. This year, the Easter bunny will be a week late, but that's a whole different post. They have been discussing what might be inside of those eggs this year. In the past, not only has there been jellybeans, but mini larabars, cars, stickers, rings, hair bands, etc. I have a feeling they will initially be disappointed, I should say Sunshine will be disappointed, that there are only going to be jellybeans. Monster is just going to be grateful the Easter bunny held off until he wasn't sick.

A day or two after I had the internal Easter basket debate, I came across this post in a blog that I religiously follow.

It's kind of ironic, but this person seems to read my mind. She seems to know what I need to hear one day or she expresses my feelings that I've been trying to convey, but no one listens to me, another. She has such a huge following that when she "speaks", people listen. When I speak, people think, "Crazy hippie. What kids are happy with stuff?" Quite honestly, I don't care how this message starts to sink in to people, I just hope it does sink in.

I said the story of why the Easter bunny is week late this year is a different post, and it is, but the important part of the story goes along with this theme. We were supposed to go to my parents house for Easter dinner. My mom had Easter baskets all made up. My dad, well, he's my dad, so he had "a lot of work" for him and Monster to do together. The Friday before Easter, Monster woke up, came into my room telling me, "I need to wear my work clothes to Nana and Papa's house for Easter because Papa and I are going to do some work". Can you see what was important? The Easter basket waiting for him? Nope, it was the time he was going to get to spend with just Papa. When Easter Sunday came and Monster couldn't go, he was devastated He woke up, after 11 hours of throwing up, telling us he felt much better and could go with us. Was he sad that the Easter bunny didn't come with junk filled eggs? Nope. Was he sad he didn't get his Easter basket filled with goodies? Nope. He was heartbroken he couldn't spend time with his Papa. Unfortunately, in our family, time is not something most of our extended family seem to want to give our kids. I keep trying to get this through to people, my kids don't care about the stuff, they want time. I can't comprehend why this is such a difficult concept. I know this isn't just my kids. I don't know where people starting "buying kids off" instead of spending time with them. I promise you that 10 years from now, no one is going to remember what was stuffed in a plastic egg, but they will remember the time that was spent doing things. They may not remember exactly what they did, but they will remember the fun they had.

Well, the day before. The day started out with Almond Cinnamon Color Swirl French Toast. Husband makes awesome breakfasts!

Husband rocks breakfasts!

Later in the day came some egg dying. This is the first year as an adult I have done this. I used to do this when I was little with my grandma. This year I decided to brave it, mostly because I found this on how to dye eggs with Kool Aid. The kids thought it was really fun. Messy, but fun! The Easter bunny will come hopping down the bunny trail tonight. He may even be able to hide eggs outside!

The one on the end is cherry and grape mixed

A bit messy

Several hours and many hand washings later, my hands have faded to bright pink.

I was really hoping to accomplish more today than I did, but it was really nice out. Sunshine and I spent some time in the sunshine while Monster was at school. We did, however, find some time for a couple crafts!

First we finished up our Bunny Candy Pockets. I got the general idea from here. Being from Martha Stewart, this was way too complicated. What we did was so much easier. First, we took construction paper (favorite colors of the kids they are going to), cut a rectangle the width that was wanted for the pocket. Then, we folded it in half to make the pocket and stapled the sides. We could have glued or taped, but I was looking for fast. After that, we cut out ears from the paper scraps and glued them onto the back of the pockets. From there, the kids added faces. When the noses and eyes were all dry, we filled them. Easy and cute.

Little Miss Sunshine also decorated her fairy princess for the garden. Really, this was just a dollar mask from JoAnn's, but we decided to use it as a garden decoration. Monster has a firefly to still do as well.

While our shopping, picked up a little something for Monster's teacher just to let her know we appreciate all she does. Found this really cool idea for a wrapping paper bow on Pinterest. Turned out really good and so easy!

And then the weird part of my day...had a boy, about 10 or 12 comment on my shirt (granted, I probably should not have been wearing it to the community pool). However, I think he was actually just staring at my chest. My shirt is super funny though, so here it is.

Today was a productive, busy day. Love days like this! Other than the general basics (dishes, laundry, floors, toys), I got so much more accomplished! Went grocery shopping and got a meal together for friends who came to join us for dinner tonight. Did some great crafts. Got a lot of the little stuff done. Looking around, I feel like I moved mountains!

First craft I did was a fun "Lucky" project.

Lucky!

Super simple. Very fast. I bought shamrock scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby, used Elmer's glue and wrote "Lucky", sprinkled on glitter. When it was dry, I added some ribbon to the corners. Stuck it in a frame and I've got new art work.

Next project was one the kids helped with.

Easter egg wreath

This project took a lot longer, but only because of all the eggs that need to be cut out. Still really easy though! First step, go to Home Depot or Lowe's and get a bunch of paint color samples. Next, trace ovals on samples. Cut out all the ovals. I did them three sheets at once to same time. After those were complete, I traced a large circle (my dog's water bowl) and cut out a "doughnut" on which to glue the eggs. For the sake of my sanity, I put the glue on the ring and then let the kids stick the eggs on. When the first layer was done, I just added more glue. While they were sticking eggs down, I tied a bow. When the eggs were completed, I used tacky glue to adhere the bow. A bit of advice....look at how many eggs I made, and cut it by half. We could probably make one and half more wreathes with the left over eggs.

Ovals

This is way too many

Doesn't have to be perfect, it's being covered up.

While the wreath was drying, we started on some cute bunny candy pockets for friends. Our friends came over while the ears were drying, so we had to put them in hiding and will finish them tomorrow! And Sunshine only mentioned it once in front of them....She's great with surprises.